Chris Sakkas pointed out that some people might be confused about the extent to which they’re legally allowed to use the ideas in my book.

I’ve written an afterword which addresses this. Please comment.

Afterword: Using the Ideas in this Book, and contacting me

Some people might be worried about copyright, especially in using ideas from other works of fiction.

Basically you don’t need to worry.

Most of the stories referred to in this book are public domain. This means that anyone can use them without needing permission. In the United States, any book published in 1921 or earlier is public domain.

Even if a book isn’t public domain, you can’t copyright ideas. For example, the Harry Potter series is about a boarding school for wizards. The earlier Earthsea series, by Ursula Le Guin, is also about a boarding school for wizards. You can’t call your character Harry Potter, and you can’t copy J.K. Rowling’s exact words, but you can legally use the idea of a boarding school for wizards. Similarly, you could use ideas from any of the stories referred to in this book.

As for my writing: I give permission for anyone to freely use anything I’ve written in this book in their stories.

If you have any further questions about copyright, please contact me at news@apolitical.info, or via my blog, http://www.apolitical.info/teleleli.

Also, if you find an error in this book, please let me know and I’ll fix it.

Communist Aliens and the Sex Lives of Demons is a sourcebook for writers of fantasy or science fiction–whether novels, short stories, role-playing games, computer games, or another form. It contains over 100,000 words of potential inspiration. Medicinal corpses, the jargons of thieves and carnies, the lore of witch hunters, the colonization of space and green children from nowhere are only a few of the topics covered. If you want to spark new ideas for worlds, plots or characters, you want Communist Aliens and the Sex Lives of Demons.